Last night was the Reigning Cats & Dogs Gala fundraiser to benefit the Sacramento SPCA. It's always a fun night of food and wine tasting plus lots of interesting gifts and artwork to bid on. It seemed like the bidding wasn't very brisk last night, though. I noticed that most of the bid cards were empty or only had one or two bids on them. I think it's because the starting bids were set too high, which discourages bidding. However, I'm pleased to report that the two copies of my books and one of my pastel giclees I had donated for the event were sold. I donated two paintings: "In the Golden Afternoon" (shown) and "Bitches and Stitches." I am pretty excited about the sale of the pastel, since it is the first such sale of my artwork. The fact that the subject matter of "Bitches and Stitches" was of two of my dear departed bassets, Dolly and Patti, snuggling together on a quilt I made makes the sale all the more special to me.